^ I agree. With all of it. And as much as I would love to be back at Alabama, I think it's a big risk to invest that much money, and possibly fail. Especially when you're talking about a house that costs ~ $12 million, plus whatever other fees.

Current total is, I believe, 260...which is pretty staggering. Many chapters are 300+.

The thing is - the present arrangement for building loans with the university is just...unprecendented, anywhere. UA is investing in Greek housing by loaning the money for building. UA owns the land, and always will. If a chapter defaults, UA gets the building. Any other time or place, the chapter would have to go to commercial lenders, which is really difficult with no collateral. It's the best time in history to bring a chapter onto campus.
But it's also the most expensive time.
I can't even wrap my head around a mortgage payment for a $12 million loan.
And what happens when, inevitably, it becomes uncool to be Greek and membership numbers drop?

RE: Alabama Recruitment

What about putting a "cap" on how many women can sign up for registration? I don't recall that being in the Green Book or an unanimous agreement...or perhaps using Arkansas' idea of setting different quotas based on current membership numbers? I'm sure the leaders at Alabama have discussed these ideas before but their enrollment doesn't seem to be slowing down.

Putting a cap on PNM numbers seems unfair to the PNMs. Make it cost more? It already costs $150 for registration by July 15; $200 from July 16-Aug. 1; and $250 onsite through Aug. 8.

I'm not familiar with the different quota concept, but sounds like only a handful of chapters would be doing any recruiting for a year or so.

Add Ohio State to the honorable mention. There are discussions about a second colonization, after Gamma Phi Beta took total last month. Quota has doubled in 5 years.

When I was there, we had 18 chapters and they currently have 16. Zeta Tau Alpha and ADPi still own their houses, and with Phi Mu's success in Ohio, they are anxious to come back.

Chapter total is 360.

Yowza!! What are the totals for Arkansas and Ole Miss?

Not sure if anyone shared Arkansas Panhellenic's 2012 plan with you guys....
http://studentaffairs.uark.edu/image...stribution.pdf

That's right! I thought 260 didn't sound correct. Thanks, 2013PNM!

Just a few random comments on that...

1. Those chapter sizes are all over the map (the 2 newest excluded of course). Have they stabilized somewhat since then?

2. This is the second time I've read a university/panhel talking about "NPC rules for extension" re how many chapters can come on and how quickly. Is there really such a thing? Every campus is different, and I've never heard of anything like "campuses can only expand after the new chapter has been there x years" or anything. It sounds like a new brothel law.

3. STOP USING THE PHRASE REACH OUT BEFORE I REACH OUT AND SMACK YOU.

LOL at number 3. Toooo true!

Also, it sounds funny coming from my former bed rush campus that used to place less than 40% of the girls who rushed.

Me too! Where did that "reach out ..." phrase come from? Makes me want to throw up. Means absolutely nada!!

Totally agree about the chapter sizes. That seems like a big red flag. I know they mentioned the variable quota, but that to me sounds like a recipe for 1) fewer women being placed / higher drop out rates; 2) could harm the smaller chapters with an even greater misconception than normal that they "take anyone". On the other hand, how do you play catch up when you're talking about 100-200 women instead of 20 or 30?

Also - that powerpoint was basically the least visually interesting thing I've seen in a long time.

The variable quota was already used in Fall 2013 at Arkansas. That slide show is old. As for adding 3 NPCs by Fall 2016 - it is already spring 2014 and they aren't even open for expansion let alone slated anyone to come on. I highly doubt anyone else is going to want to colonize until the 2 new groups have some huge issues resolved.

Irishpipes, are the two new groups still in the dorms?